5 Songs We Can't Stop Listening To is a collection of our newest favorite songs. Every week we ask an artist that we love to tell us about the music they love.
Listen to the whole segment and all the songs below.
1. Jake Shears picks “Come On to Me” by Paul McCartney
Our guest this week is Jake Shears. Jake Shears was the lead singer of the glam-rock band Scissor Sisters and this year he has released his own solo album, also called “Jake Shears.” We’re playing the song “Creep City.” My guest today is former lead singer of Scissor Sisters and now lead singer singer of his band, which is himself, Jake Shears.
Justin Barney: Jake, what's one song right now that you have been listening to a ton recently?
Jake Shears: I have to say the one song I have been listening to a ton right now is just the new Paul McCartney: “Come On to Me.”
Justin Barney: Yeah!
Jake Shears: I’ve been listening to the single and then finally got to the whole album today and it's a fantastic record. It’s epic. There’s like fifteen songs, it’s such a good album. It's heartbreaking and weird and he really goes off on some tangents and there’s medleys..anyway so I would have to say right now it would be “Come On to Me” by Paul McCartney.
Justin Barney: Why do you think we’re so into Paul McCartney? He has just endured, and been at the top of his game for the better part of a century. Why do you think that is?
Jake Shears: He's one of the best songwriters of time. He's put into something, he's a very liberated song writer, he's got huge imagination. I think that some of the stuff, I love that some of the stuff is very personal, some of it are just these wild fictions that he goes for. He’s of course you know, an influence to me, but he’s a massive influence to all of music.
He’s basically you know, I think, one of the main foundations of contemporary songwriting.
Justin Barney: Absolutely.
Jake Shears: So yeah, I’m a massive Paul McCartney fan.
- “Come On to Me” by Paul McCartney was released in June of 2018.
- Listen to if you like: Scissor Sisters, Wings, The Beatles
2. Lonnie Holley - “How Far Is Spaced-Out”
Lonnie Holley is a 68-year-old sculptor. This is his third album. He released his very first album when he was 63 years old. I have been listening to this album all week, it’s called “MITH” and it is an incredibly rewarding listen.
Oftentimes it is a difficult listen, like a piece of artwork you have to sit with it, you have to contemplate it, it's full of the songs that are between seven and ten minutes long and you kind of have to let him take you through it. The journey he takes you on is one that you can't be afraid of.
It starts with this song called “I'm a Suspect” he says that he is a suspect, it's got songs called “I Snuck Off the Slave Ship” that is this twenty-minute journey that you're on and it ends on this note called “Sometimes I Wanna Dance.” This final bit of levity that it takes you up lets you know that you're really living.
And so it's been a fantastic album. If you dig this song I urge you to check out the album because it is a piece of art in itself; like his sculpture it's pieced together with all of these bits that come together to form the art that is his album “MITH.”
- "MITH” is out now.
- Listen if you like: folk art, Tom Waits, Sound Travels
3. Michelle Wolf picks “The End of Love” by Florence + The Machine
My guest today is Michelle Wolf. Michelle Wolfe is a comedian, she has written for ‘The Daily Show," she's done the White House Correspondents Dinner, she is host of the the Netflix show "The Break with Michelle Wolf," she's hilarious. She's also coming to Milwaukee on Sunday, October 7 at Turner Hall Ballroom. My guest today is Michelle Wolf.
Justin Barney: What is the last song you couldn't stop listening to?
Michelle Wolf: Oh umm, let’s see...You know what, it's going to be such a girly answer, it's gonna be Florence and the Machine’s “End of Love.”
Justin Barney: What do you like about Florence + The Machine?
Michelle Wolf: Well first of all I love her voice, she’s great. It doesn't sound like any other singer really, it's very unique. But also I've just been listening to her for a long time, I run to her music all the time... and she’s a redhead so I try to stay true. I try to have an allegiance.
Justin Barney: Florence doesn’t strike me as running music.
Michelle Wolf: You know, if you saw my running playlist you’d be like, "None of this strikes me as running music." I mean, some does, but it’s all over the place. It looks like ten different people made a running playlist.
Justin Barney: Why that song?
Michelle Wolf: It’s good, I mean it’s one of those songs where she released a new album, and I do this thing where I will listen to a song that I really like until I hate it, and then I’ll never listen to it again.
Which is how, I’m sure everyone wants their music to be consumed.
Justin Barney: Yes, perfect. So what is the name of the song?
Michelle Wolf: It’s called “The End of Love.”
Justin Barney: Alright, we’ll do it.
- “The End of Love” is off Florence + The Machines album "High as Hope" and was released in June of 2018.
- Listen to if you like: Classic Florence risers, that powerful voice, running?
4. Tunde Olaniran – “Mountain”
Justin Barney: I’m here with Amelinda, our Digital Content Coordinator. Amelinda, what are you listening to?
Amelinda: One song I can’t stop listening to is “Mountain” by Tunde Olaniran.
So this is this awesome song I heard and I had to look it up because it’s crazy. And I read in Paper Magazine that this track is about following through on your art in music. That, “Creating is worth some sleepless nights and uncertain times because you can’t just stop half way up the mountain. You either climb up or you fall.”
Justin: And this song goes all the way up the mountain. We just listened to it in the studio and I was surprised that you were bringing a pop song, but it has a pop sensibility but is also deeply experimental.
Amelinda: It’s also not surprising that this artist is a choreographer, a visual artist, dancer, producer but if you didn’t know anything about that the song itself is super motivational.
Something about the pacing and the beat makes me want to move and I dare anybody listening not to move when they hear that chorus.
- "Mountain" was just released as a single.
- Listen if you like: experimental pop, dancing
5. “Put You On” by Amber Mark ft. DRAM
Amber Mark is an artist that I’ve been kind of, keeping an eye on. She released an EP and a couple singles earlier this year that were really good and I feel like she reaches her truest form in this song.
Also it's got a big assist from DRAM. We all have those artists who we just can't help but love, and for me anything that DRAM does, I just... he's got me down.
So them two on this song is great. For me, music is usually this really personal thing. It is something that I listen to for me, it's really personal and inside of me.
But this is not that song. This is a song to listen to in the presence of other people. This is a song I wanna put on at the party and bump.
So let’s listen to it, this is “Put You On,” turn it up, bump it up, by Amber Mark featuring DRAM.
- “Put You On” by Amber Mark feat. DRAM was released September 7 of 2018.
- Listen to if you like: bumping, DRAM's smiling voice, listening to music with other people